Python 2.1b2 on SuSE Linux 7.0:

The readline extension module must be linked with
libncurses, else 'import readline' fails because of
unresolved symbols.
(libtermcap is only installed for libc5 compatibility
in SuSE 7.0)

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user_id=21627

This patch is not necessary. If readline.so is a shared 
library that relies on libncurses, it should itself be 
linked with libncurses; this is indeed the case on SuSE 
7.2:

martin@mira:~ > ldd /usr/lib/libreadline.so               
        libncurses.so.5 => /lib/libncurses.so.5
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2

Now, if the libreadline.so on SuSE 7.0 does not link 
itself with libncurses, that's a bug in the readline 
package.

OTOH, linking libncurses might be the *wrong* thing, since 
on some systems, libcurses might be needed even if 
libncurses is present (e.g. some Solaris installations).

If some system requires a special build procedure, the 
administrator must build the module using Modules/Setup, 
so that setup.py will not attempt to build it.